Mat Bowles

Righty-Ho. synth_culture was fun last night, met up with nearly_everyone in the Doric Arches, then went on the the Egg to meet up with everyone else. Was good. Am still recovering from the hugely long bus journey home, in which the TFL timetables with set times made no sense at all ever. Still, was good to use my bus-fu and get us back via circuitous routes successfully...

Bah, you don't want to hear about my boring life, you want links! Yay links! Not many of them, because, y'know, not spending much time online *looks at SB* yes, well, *ahem*

A very cool flash based clock with pretty coloured spirals (via). ETA: Paul in the comments also points out there's downloadable screensaver as well. While I'm currently sticking to my Life on Mars clock, timekeeping screensavers rule.

Also, for those of you that regularly post IM conversations onto your LJ, this nice little IM LJ-ifier would make reading the darn conversations actually, y'know, do-able...

Oh yeah, last nights Now Show is now available to download (MP3) and being the BBC they even have it as a podcast as well. Go, listen, hear me laugh in the audience. OK, I'm one of many may, but, y'know...

Oh Michael? Look what I found:
Yup, it's my Elf team. The first miniatures I ever bought, and amongst the first I ever painted. Scarily, of the figures I own, they're also the best painted unit, even though I last redid them when I was 18, way before I'd spent 10 years working for the company painting figures every day. My Cawdor gang for Necromunda is quite good, but these just rule.

Anyway, the point of all this? Well, after last weeks debacle, I have gone through all the gaming crap piled on the storage shelf and dug out the team I know I can win with. So, firstly, a rematch my friend. When?

Secondly? londonbloodbowl. Only just set it up, no posts, or rules, or anything. If Mike and I are going to be playing regularly, might as well organise something, right? I've sent invites to those who expressed an interest, but anyone else, feel free to join and we'll see what we can arrange.

Spent the afternoon unpacking the boxes still in the car and sorting theroom out; I have completely filled all my bookshelves in the new place. This would be fine, except I've still two boxes worth of books to unpack. Oops. Still, nice to have access to all the reference books if I want them. Unlikely, but you never know.

Got a text from d_notice_fd reminding me we'd arranged to meet up, so went to the Raynes Park Tavern which it transpirse is our mutual loacl, and dragged nadriel out as well. It's actually not a bad pub, considering it has a massive wide screen TV playing football. You can avoid that bit, the menu looked ok, and dirt cheap, and it is 5 minutes walk from my door. Probably worth a pub lunch or five at some point. Anyway...

Remember the Mass Lone Protest I did in January? Well, via both d_notice_fd in the pub and markthomasinfo I'm reminded that while I missed it last month, I can make it this month, so...

[Poll #942769]

Sorry, couldn't resist.

( Moving to London, stuff with friends, and pirates )
Anyway; I got to ?skip=200 on my main friends view, let alone blogs and weasels, so I gave up, so if anything major has happened in your life recently, or you've died, or something, LMK?

I'll put up a new contact details for LJ-friends tomorrow when I've figured out the post code, but the public bit is Raynes Park, near Wimbledon, SW20

I am a London resident, complete with house keys and off-street parking. Off street parking, broadband and a room that isn't as small as I thought, for £300 a month? Bargain!

Now, naturally, I have to go investigate the kitchen facilities, I'm a little peckish. Then, the plan is, investigate this thing known as Slimelight. I've never been.

Right, last night, I went to see a place advertised in the cheap section of the Ham&High property guide.  Flatshare, sounded about what I'm looking for.  Was right next to a complete self contained flat for less than £300pcm in the same postcode district as this place, so the prices looked right.

Met the (slightly batty) lady as she walked back from the shops, helped her in with her shopping, and just looked at the main room.  It was gorgeous.  So I turned and said: Um, the price in the paper, £300.  That's not per month is it, it's per week.  She looked at me as if this was blitheringly obvious.  It never occured to me to check, it was in the cheap section, and I don't know the areas well enough. Still, nice cup of tea, long chat, I showed her what was wrong with her ad and why she wasn't getting any respondents (because, y'know, it was an ad suited for a cheap place, not a Really Nice Place.  then I helped her put it on a few websites I'd been looking at (although I can't see it live on gumtree so can't link).  Then she offered me commission if I found someone that wanted to take the room.

So, anyone want a room in Hampstead for £250-£300 per week?  Hampstead, ten minutes walk from two tube stops, quiet, broadband, huge room, private bathroom, off street parking, one shared tenant, nice but slightly batty?

Still, a few to visit today that look promising, two of them within 5 minutes walk of Mike's flat (not sure if that's a good thing) and at least I know the area.  Really liking it up here; might possibly be spending too little time looking for a place to live, and  a bit too much time simply wondering around and getting on and off at random tube stops. Oh, and book shops. Might be going into them too often as well.

Also, snow?  My car is covered, went to get some stuff from it earlier, and it's actually white.  I mean, I know that's the colour of the paint, but it hasn't been this white since a few days after I bought it.  What is this snow stuff, we don't get that in Devon Torquay (seriously, we don't, it all melts immediately).  Good job I'm not driving anywhere today.

ETA: Saw a place earlier, small room in shared house, dirt cheap, all bills paid, includes wireless broadband, can't be argued with, and it'll give me incentive to find somewhere bigger when I'm settled in witha steady income. Me happy.

OK then. _drop_zone_ was cool last night, was good to see many Reading friends again, and indeed meet people I'd heard about or talked to but not actually met before. I have no idea how much I drank, what I will say is that, for a bourbon, Maker's Mark is actually quite drinkable, faeriecween was right about that.

Consequently, I'm horribly hung over and not in the mood to think much, even now. ( Still lfat hunting )

( Books: Susanna Clarke, John Scalzi, both good ) Suffice to say, for those that have read it, I want a BrainPal.

Anyway, Mike is snoring the other side of the room, I'm going to curl up in a corner and possibly watch some DVDs; I both got my Firefly back (yay!) and borrowed some new ones from Christy. Was good to meet people last night, and thanks to all for the chats, drinks, etc. In the meantime, I offer for your entertainment pleasure, conclusive proff that blogthings quiz results are completely and utterly suspect and normally far from reality.

Oh, also? To whichever anonymous person bought me the extra userpics bolt on as a gift? Thanks! I'm scared a little, but thanks anyway.

I love my LJ layout. I like the colour scheme, I like the friends page, I like the 3-column view, the tag cloud.

Unfortunately, it handles very long threaded conversations incredibly badly. On the one hand, comments=good, we like comments. On the other, a large chunk of text crammed into a comment an inch wide is just silly.

Gah! I can always append ?format=light, but that disappears after a comment is made, so you get the narrow column again. Ah well, back to a redesign of some sort I guess :-(

Maybe later. Much later. Maybe I'll just export everything earlier than planned. Oh, I dunno. My flat appointment for tonight got bumped to tomorrow, so I've got nowt to do, Mike's at a leaving do. Hmm, broadband. YouTube. I'll watch YouTube. And maybe some of ginasketch's stuff.

London lunch tomorrow?

Anyone want to meet up for lunch in town tomorrow? Or indeed Saturday?

So, in 2006, who was the biggest arsehole, Nick Griffin, Robert Mugabe or George Galloway? Each has had a tough fight to get to the finals, and now they duke it out. publicansdecoyhas more.

In other news, my car is back on the road, which means I've decided to simply drive up to London this afternoon, partially so I can make nhw's thing, but mostly because I've been stuck in the flat for a bit longer than planned and I really need to be making progress.

nadriel? At zero notice, can I take you up on your offer? If not, I'll find somewhere, but 'free' is always a favoured accommodation option in London.

So, eat, shop, change clothes (because I had to lie on the wet floor to sort out bits of the car) then drive up to London. About time, I hear you all cry...

Right, went out last night in London (as nadriel had a former appointment with his Warcrack addiction), to see a recording of the Now Show. Met up unexpectedly with scorpionchild and also with bopeepsheep, who, by random chance, is a maintainer of a community I joined yesterday morning. So, I wrote up the report not here, but at yeoldelj, The Now Showwe. Looks like an amusing project, go join...

Tonight, synth_culture and we're meeting various people in the pub at Euston Station (called, The Winchester/The Head of Steam The Doric Arch apparently, but incase it's changed again it's the one that enters onto the bus station) from about 8.30pm.

Tomorrow, still planning on going to Oxford to that Dreddcon thing. juggzy, you still interested? No idea whereabout you're based, but I'd be looking at taking the 11.21 from Paddington it looks like. In the evening, with luck, meeting up with jantshira to catch up, haven't seen her since the summer.

Mat is happy. Mat has had a good, relaxing week in which he's acheived very little. Life is OK. Oh yeah. Buy a Euromillions ticket tonight. jiggery_pokery has done the maths, because of the rollover and guaranteed payout, the maths, for once, is in the favour of the punter.

OK, firstly, I am not sober. Not drunk, but not sober. Second, the link in my last post was to here at livejournal_uk, I used LJ Hook to insert the link and didn't check it as I was running out the door.

Third, Terry Pratchett is a god among men. Great public speaker, very funny, observant (as in, spotted and asked me the correct spelling for my name and was just generally cool), and, well, my credit card got used for a few more books. Not really an issue, it was birthday money, honest.

Fourth, I love LJ. As in, I love the community. Just over a year ago, I went to S-C with nadriel. When there, I met two cool people. She who was to become faeriecween and the lady known as innerbrat. I've obviously got to know the former rather well, but I've actually met the latter three times in person total. Today was the third time. Yet we talked, got on, chatted, as if we knew each other and were old friends. Because of LJ. Because we've commented, helped each other out, advised, consoled, taken the piss, etc. I think this is a good thing. Tonight, also met rowanberries, who seems slightly more insane. Not as nuts as some on my f-list, but still.

( LJ wittering )

Oh, the title? It's a reference to his next book. Which sounded very cool. And involved a joke with a clockwork vibrator. Seriously.

Oh yeah, innerbrat? liz_marcs here. Red Dwarf + Buffy. As discussed.